


Nao To

by WishStone



Series: In a name... [2]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship, death of parents, kannao - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-04 18:03:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6668776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishStone/pseuds/WishStone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all it takes is an offhand comment to try and reconnect with that was lost. And no matter how strong you are, having a friend when it hits you has value beyond measure.</p><p>Regular Naoto Spoilers (aka: Do not read if you have not played P4 past September.)<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Naoto Shirogane](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Naoto+Shirogane).



> Sorry, sorry, not yet fully beta'ed, not the editors' fault, my fault for getting it to them late, but, needs to post today. ^^;  
> Happy Birthday, Naoto. :3

It is important to note that Naoto did not chuckle. Admittedly, her lips may have quirked into a smile. Briefly. And well shielded by the brim of her cap.

At the edge of her vision, she saw Chie-senpai and Yosuke-senpai have another of their common verbal sparring matches. She had not caught what it started with this time, but as time went on, their volume increased. As much as she wanted to allow them privacy in these matters, even with them standing apart from the group the argument _carried_. The shouting had already started to drive other students from the roof and the lunch break was far from over still.

“Naoto-kun!” She turned her head to the desperately-happy sounding voice of Rise Kujikawa. “What’s been up with you the last few days?” There was a hint of desperation as she raised her voice more, trying to drown out their bickering senpai. “Not seen you!”

“Thank you, Rise-san, I’ve been well. Last weekend I went to see Grampa. I had some files I wanted to go over in person, so the visit seemed to be well-timed.”

“Sure, well times, but did you have fun?”

“Fun? Well… It…” She trailed off and turned her head to gaze at her chopsticks poking at her bento. Pushing some of the loose rice back into a more compact shape, she let her mind prod at the posed question.

The idol rolled her eyes and nudged her with an elbow. “Come on, that’s not a hard question! Did you enjoy yourself?”

“Yes, of course I enjoyed myself. Going home is always enjoyable. But your question was if I had fun. I am not sure.” Thoughtfully she picked up some grilled salmon and rice, but she simply held the bite with her chopsticks instead of plopping it into her mouth. “I do not equate my _home_ with _fun_. Not in the way you might. And I think the sad thing is that-“

“YOU NEVER SAID THAT!” Yosuke voice cracked around the edges as he screamed at Chie. The three kōhai flinched and Kanji-kun growled as he put his sown bento aside, getting to his feet. “ _YOU_ SAID THAT IF-“

“STUFF IT YOU TWO!” Naoto’s eyebrows shot up. Kanji-kun had gotten much better at taming his temper in the last few months. Hearing him raise his voice the way he used to was both familiar and startling to her now. “YER RUININ’ OUR LUNCH, SO PACK IT IN OR GO ELSEWHERE!” Shoulders squared, pulled up to his full height he stood towering over both their senpai and the glare he gave them in turn efficiently doused the fires of their argument.

It was Chie who backed down first, giving their friends a glance, then looking at Yosuke. “Sorry, Kanji. Sorry, Yosuke.”

“No… gah, you’re right, Chie, that was dumb of me…” He made a move as if to hug her, changed his mind and held out a hand instead. Yukiko, previously sitting between Naoto and Kanji, started to giggle lightly. As Kanji stepped back, the awkward of the not-hut-not-handshake grew and finally Chie lost her temper once more and their argument re-erupted. Before Kanji was able to interfere a second time, the sporty girl landed a low kick on her friend, sending him tumbling.

And this is when Yukiko lost all her remaining composure and doubled over. Her laugh was much too contagious. While she started to struggle for air and tried her hardest to contain herself, both Rise and Naoto leaned against one another with full-on belly laughs.

"It wasn't that funny," Yosuke grumbled still trying to unable his legs. The way Chie had managed to trip him as he tried to jump away from her had been excellently executed, Naoto thought, and if he had indeed made a grab for her, well, it was deserved.

Kanji just threw his hands up and stalked back to them, plopping down between Yukiko and Rise and picked up his food.

“Geez,” Rise sighed, “and here I thought they would figure it out before the summer break.”

“Figure what out?” Naoto asked.

“You know. Chie. _And_ Yosuke?”

The junior detective blinked. “Oh. You still feel they would be-“

“-amazingly cute together? Yes! You don’t see it?”

Kanji did not lift his head, but Naoto saw him glance at her before snapping his eyes back to his food.

Yukiko tilted her head slightly. “Yes.” Then her giggles started up again. “For the five minutes it takes for them to kill one another!”

“A-Anyway,” Kanji interjected, “Ya were sayin’ bout home, Naoto?”

She turned her head and watched him poke at his food. Of course it had not been a private conversation, but she was surprised that he had been listening to her and Rise earlier. “Ah, yes. Well, I simply meant to express that fun to me always was to a greater degree job training.”

“How so?” Rise asked.

“Take my affinity for gadgets and … toys.” She started, tucking her cap lower before placing her chopsticks down. “Even in child’s play, I would already hone my skills to my future profession. I am not sure it was the intent of anyone, but looking back, little of what I did was actually purely for fun. To this day, I am mechanically inclined, I solve puzzles – albite somewhat larger and with more weight these days, and my mannerisms have grown sharper with each passing year.” She looked back up into her friends’ sombre faces. “Oh, please, don’t look so distraught! I did feel refreshed after seeing the estate, and Grampa is well and healthy. It was a good weekend back home for me.”

“Sometimes you really, really overthink things,” Chie-senpai said as she sat down. She did help Yosuke back to his feet before returning and the friends now sat back together, in the atmosphere of a slightly less crowded roof top.

Yosuke grinned at the girls and gave Naoto an easy wink. “Well, that’s what you get for being a Naoto, I guess.”

“I beg your pardon, Yosuke-senpai?”

“Well, your name alone says it, right? You’re an _honest person_. Or, wait, are you written as ‘esteem, person’ -“ he dragged his finger on the ground to sign out 尚人.

Chie rolled her eyes and elbowed him. “Only dorks are spelled that way, besides, I know it’s ‘honesty’, you saw her cake a few months ago and Kanji wrote her name on it and everything-“

“-YEAH, nice, so what?” the young tailor muttered, curling in on himself a bit.

“I am _saying_ , Kanji, that there is nothing weird about her name.”

“Well… it is slightly unusual. While predominantly a male name, I am not spelled in the common form of ‘honest, person’.” Her voice tailed off and she frowned to herself. “As a matter of fact, it is spelled somewhat uncommon, now that I actually think about it…”

“Eh,” Yosuke supplied, too busy with his food to take notice of her thoughtful expression, “names are just names. No use in digging around them. I doubt my parents spend forever to decide what I should be called. I’m possibly named after a friend or relative or something. Possibly the same with you, Naoto.”

“Perhaps…”

The old Latin proverb _nomen est omen_ came to her. Her observant nature, her affinity to analysing information before making a call on it. She would need to check a few things in the library later…

 


	2. Chapter 2

> **C U @ LBRRY? Y/N**

His steps slowed and Kanji stopped while he blinked at his phone a few times and started to add letters into the clumped-together words on the small screen. Oh, wait, he remembered having seen this 'LBRRY' before. Scrolling through his previous messages from Naoto, he found that it means _library_.

 _Seriously, typing might be faster for her like that, but it sure as hell ain't any faster ta read or_ understand _her like that._ He smirked as he started walking again, nearly home.

> **That's an 'N', I'm nowhere near. Why, what did you need?**

Kanji pushed the back door open and snuck towards the rear entrance of the store. Seeing his mom had a customer, he did not yet announce himself, walking upstairs to drop off his school stuff. His phone buzzed and he quickly flipped it open.

> **N NEED WILL C U 2MRRW**

"Oh like hell you'll jus' bench me…" he grumbled, tapping out a reply.

> **Don't be like that, you clearly wanted something. Let me come back, you're at school still?**

_Friggin' pride in that girl..._ Kanji pulled open a drawer on his desk and grabbed a package of animal crackers, adding it into his school bag. He turned, walking back downstairs and let his Ma know he forgot something at school and needed to go back.

"What did you forget, dear? Surely it could wait till tomorrow, seeing how late it is?"

"Ah… I… I forgot.." His phone buzzed again and he flipped it open while still trying to find the right excuse.

> **CN U CM 2 OVRLK?**

That was another word he knew. Overlook Point on the hill. His smile seemed to give an answer his words had been unable to, because his Ma spoke up once more. "You could tell me if you need to go to meet someone, Kanji-chan."

"Th-That's not it, ya old bat! 's just… 's Naoto; she wanted to study." He frowned at his phone. "I think?"

"Don't keep your friend waiting, dear." The knowing smile she gave her son did nothing for his mood and he grumbled to himself still when he pulled some sodas from the vending machines on his way to the bus stop.

 

* * *

 

Naoto sighed as she gazed up into the canopy of the tree, its greenery casting ever-moving shadows on her. She felt her neck being gently cradled by the V-shaped fork of the branch she lay on, enjoying the feeling of nature itself cradling her. In part her love for climbing and heights came from this feeling: As if nature itself reached out to shelter her. A feeling of completeness and warmth she could not allow herself to feel in the presence of other human beings.  

 _Most human beings_ , she corrected herself, as she heard a group of birds dart from a cluster of bushes along the path. She turned her head and could barely see a tall black-haired boy head towards the gazebo. She lifted her arm to gaze at her wristwatch. He was early. She hit one of the small buttons and the display changed. '80M', it read. He would soon be in range to produce a more precise reading.

She did not immediately leave her perch. Gazing up she saw only shreds of blue and white through the leaves. It was late evening and soon sunset would turn the blue darker; turn the clouds reddish. Part of her wished he had been late, so that he would not be here when sunset would work its magic. Regardless of their friendship, there was always something unspoken, something under tension, and she could never shake this feeling near him. That all she needed to do when Kanji Tatsumi was near was to simply listen close and hear the hum of a taut string, vibrating at a low bass.

She frowned and shook her head. _Feeling a little dramatic, Shirogane?_ With a tiny sigh at her strange mood she swung her legs sideways, propelling herself into a seated position. She had asked him to join her here and now she was making him wait.

 

* * *

 

By the time he got to the gazebo on top of the lookout point, the afternoon was headed well towards evening. He smiled at the sky, still dark blue, and looked around to see if Naoto had arrived already. He saw her briefcase, but not her.

Puzzled, he pulled his keys from his pocket and selected one of his key chain hangers. A tiny plush Sukuna-Hikona fell in his hand and he unbuttoned its shirt, revealing a small digital display. He hit a hidden button on this side and the display lit up. '5.2M', it read.

He frowned and looked around. If she was somewhere within six meters, he should be able to see her already. Did she take her watch of and leave it in her brief case? He walked around the table and glanced at the tracer. The distance shrank a little bit, but he wasn't really closing in on her. He wandered around some more, then stopped and frowned at the nearby bushes when the distance did not seem to significantly change any longer.

"I know yer 'ere, Naoto. I got one, too, ya know..."

"I realise that." He turned sharply and saw her dangling from a branch of the large tree he had passed under several times now. "I was the one who build the device into your creation, after all." With that, she let go, and his heart nearly stopped. That drop is at least another three meters! He ran hard towards her, but she landed in a rolling motion, being on her feet just as he got to her.

Naoto smiled at him with a cocked eyebrow. "Did you seriously think I needed your help with a small jump like this one? You have seen me clear the fences in the downtown back-alleys often enough, no?"

He grumbled. "Yeah, so? No need for ya to be so damn reckless." He shook his head with a fond smile. "So, whaddya need me for?"

Looking up at him, the smile on her lips vanished slowly. "Kanji-kun... I..." She bit her lip. "This is somewhat of a personal matter, so meeting out here is actually…" She frowned and crossed her arms.

He didn't ask what was wrong, simply held out a hand to her.

She looked at his hand and shook her head. "That will not be necessary. But… Thank you."

Kanji shrugged off the pang of disappointment and dropped his hand. "So what happened? I was home already when I got your text."

"Oh, Kanji-kun, you could have said!"

"Sure, could have." He grinned. "But if ya take the time to type in a nearly readable manner... Hell, that's rare enough to make me stop whatever I'm doing and get all worried about ya."

She lightly slapped his arm and he chuckled, mouthing 'Ow!' as if she could actually leave any kind of mark on him. "You keep that up, and I'll start using Rise-san's wonderfully endearing nickname for you."

His face fell. "Damn, harsh..."

They smiled at their teasing and went to the bench under the gazebo. She found he had brought a few snacks and his book bag. "Did you not even drop off your books at home?"

He nudged her. "No need to look so guilty. When ya asked if I could come to the library, I figured ya wanted to sturdy or something. And when I told you I had already left but would come back, and you said here, well, that pretty much spelled out study session. So, snacks and books, right?"

She nodded. "I guess it is a kind of study session. But not for school." She opened her own brief case and started pulling out folders and sheaves of paper held tightly by paper clips. His eyes widened a bit as she started to lay everything out, but stayed silent. By the time she finished, she looked over a few folders and several stacks of papers.

She spread the folders out and turned them to face him. He picked up the first one and frowned a bit. "Chinese Folklore?" He reached for the next, flipping through a few pages, his confusion growing. "What's this? 'Genealogy of the Shirogane Family'?" She nodded. He leaned forward, ruffling through copies put together with a strong paper clip. "Astrology? Really? Since when do you care about that kinda stuff?"

Her smile was replaced with the slight puzzled frown of concentration that so easily showed on her forehead. "Let us say my interests have broadened. Watching Yu-senpai summon forth demons, demigods, creatures of folklore and even gods - why not astrology as well?"

"Huh. Yea, I guess. But, wow, Naoto..." He adjusted his glasses and picked up the genealogy folder, leaned his forearms against the table and started to read. It started several generations ago, and as he skimmed the papers, he noticed Naoto had highlighted names, added sticky notes with annotations to point out the spelling and pronunciations of several of them.

"Man," he mumbled, flipping pages.

"Yes, Kanji-kun?"

"I don't even know my Pa's name… I never asked Ma about it."

"Oh. Not even after our talk at the shrine?"

"Ah, that." He marked a page with his hand and glanced at her. "I, uh, I didn't…"

She nodded. "You've yet to bring it up?"

"Yeah… If I was ta have a brother or sister, that's not something I wanna put back on her." He pressed his lips together and looked back down. "So, uh, Naoto, what's all this?"

"That is the full history as far as we have records of the Shirogane lineage. We are missing a few early entries, and the change in naming conventions at the start of the last century made record-keeping a bit of a task…"

Kanji let out a low whistle and his eyes widened slightly. Sure, it would be neat to know how invested the Tatsumis were in their craft, but he doubted he could even produce half of what Naoto had gathered here.

He placed the folder down and pulled the next stack of papers closer. As he skimmed through the highlighted sections - talking about the big dipper constellation, where it is found, when it rises and so forth, he heard Naoto pick up one of the TaP he brought along and open it. His eyes flicked up to her and she was comparing notes with another stack of papers she had in front of her.

Kanji stopped and sat up straight. Her cobalt blue hair shone as the setting sun hit it at an angle, giving her slightly pinkish highlights. She looked... _Nice_...

She also was too observant still. Looking up, she frowned. "Did you spot something?"

"I, ah, no, just..." He struggled up from the bench and walked to the fence. She shuffled some papers behind them and followed. He pressed his lips together tightly, annoyed how easily he still slipped up around her, and gazed towards the sunset.

She stopped beside him and sipped from her can. "Lovely."

"Yeah."

"I have not taken the time to appreciate nature for ... months, I believe." She leaned on the fence beside him and both took in the slowly changing colours in the evening sky. "Will your mother worry if you come home after dark?"

"Na. I can look after myself, right? 'm a big boy."

She chuckled and leaned towards him sharply, giving him a push with her shoulder. "Yes, you are."

They went quiet again. Kanji hoped she would lean against him some more. Or keep talking. Or... something. But they just stood, side by side, watching the sky turn from pink to red, growing darker slowly. All at once the street lights in Inaba below them flickered to life and the valley seemed to be a small dam of light, slowly filling up as the darkness of the night came.

"So, uh… Naoto?"

"Mhm? Yes, Kanji-kun?"

"What's with all the paper? You said it's not for school, so what is it?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I blame Ika? I really wanted to keep Nao To in the same line as Kan Ni, about the same number of words, 2 chapters. Then I had a false start and Ika convinced me to pretty much leave the false start in and simply make the story longer. So, uhm, sorry. Three chapters now.
> 
> Also: A big thank-you for taking a commission goes out to out gh0stbunnii here!  
> Follow the link [HERE](http://gh0stbunnii--moved.tumblr.com/post/161370864508/kanji-x-naoto-commission-by-wishstonedragon-if) to see a cute cuddle drawn by way more talented haands than mine own.


	3. Chapter 3

They quietly watched the remaining rays of sunlight tint the clouds into a deeper and deeper red.

"What Yosuke-senpai had said..."

He turned his head and looked down at the mess of blue hair beside him. "Ya?"

"He said that my name made sense for who I am."

He watched her, waiting.

"There have been three other Naoto's in my family line, but each one of them was male, cousins and uncles, and each one of them was spelled in the classical way." With a sigh, she turned and walked back to the table.

Kanji gave evening sky another glance, then followed her.

Naoto had taken off her cap and pulled the genealogy folder closer and flipped a specific page open. She looked over her shoulder to Kanji and pointed to a name. "You see?" She pointed at the kanji on one of the names. 直 - Honesty. 人 - Person. "Frank or straight being. It is one of the more traditional spellings for 'Naoto', and for reasons I could not grasp, I was spelled, well, differently."

"Huh. I never really thought about it." _I just thought your name was strong and powerful and written unusual and I NEED TO STOP THIS._

"Neither had I, to be honest. I thought it was a quirk of my parents, but then..." She pulled another folder forward. "My _To_ ," she pointed at the kanji 斗, "is generally found in the name 'Hokutō', where I presume my parents borrowed the spelling from." She sketched out the name in her notebook and pointed at it -北斗.

He frowned, trying to keep up with her stream of explanations. He walked around the table and sat down beside her, reaching for a soda as well. "So… They didn't go with the classical way of writing your name, but went with an alteration? " The first stars started to come out, but the lamps near the gazebo made reading easy still. He gazed at the different names, noticing distractedly that the other Naoto apparently was a great-great uncle on her mother's side, so not even a Shirogane.

"So it appears." She rested the pen against her lips and frowned, pulling the folder labelled "Chinese Astrology" closer. Gently taking the pen in her mouth and biting the end to hold it, she started to shuffled through the papers. Kanji swallowed hard, trying to not look too closely at her while she did this. "You see, Hokuto itself carries the meaning of 'big dipper', as in the star constellation of the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major. And it is actually directly taken from the term in astrology, as you may know." She stopped here and gazed at him. "Hokutō Shichisei?" She looked over her shoulder and frowned. "It's a bit early still. I can show you once it gets darker."

Kanji took off his glasses and leaned on the table, watching her browse. "Okay, but if Hokutō means, uh, Uruo Mayor-"

"...Ursa Major..."

"-yeah, that, if that's the case, why does it matter here?"

"Because of the -tō." She turned back and flipped a few pages. "So, taking that as my next lead, I decided I needed to investigate the origin of -tō. In Chinese astrology, the Dipper, Dǒu, resides in the Black Tortoise of the North."

Kanji felt himself zoning out already, and she hadn't even started yet. "Dipper in a house. Like, a ladle in my kitchen?"

Naoto actually chuckled as she pushed her hair back with her left hand before elbowing him. _Her hair looks kinda nice, longer…_ "No, goodness Kanji-kun, really! A House, or a Mansion in astrology is where a cluster of star signs are in regard to a time, as opposed to a location." She gave him a glance, then pulled out her phone to look up a website. "Let's see, any easier explanation... Ah! Here it is. 'Every house system is dependent on the rotational movement of Earth on its axis, but there is a wide range of approaches to-'"

He placed a light hand on her arm and gave her a slightly pained smile. "I'm sorry, Naoto, all of this is going in the one ear and right out the other. 'm not as smart as you are."

She puffed her cheeks at him. "A misconception you seem determined to hold on to," she sighed, putting her phone down. "But I take it that, at least right now, you are not _interested_." He nodded sheepishly and she smiled. "Well. It holds no absolute meaning on what I am trying to go for." She started to flip past about a dozen pages before she stopped. "Here she is."

He leaned closer and gazed at a multi-armed woman pictured amongst clouds. "Who is she?"

"She is an embodiment of the dipper of the star constellation of the Big Dipper, a Goddess called Dǒumu."

"So, wait, goddesses now?"

"That was what confused me as well. You see, the kanji for dipper and measure seems to have been taken directly in connection with everything surrounding Chinese astrology. Also, the kanji for dipper, or _measure_ is directly linked. See? Here it is again." She pointed at the annotation of the image reading 斗母.

"Mkay. So what?"

The junior detective stopped and blinked at her tailor friend. " _So what_?"

"What I mean is," he said, inspecting an animal cracker before eating it, "so what does all'a this have to do with you?"

She frowned at the papers spread out on the table. "That is very much what I am trying to find out." She closed the folder and stood once more, taking her soda with her. Kanji grabbed the box of animal crackers and followed. The stopped by the fence, leaning against it and looking down into Inaba below them. The valley had now filled fully with the light of street lamps, fluorescent store front signs and houses.

He tilted the box to her and she shook her head. "I am not sure why, but what Yosuke-senpai said struck a chord. I… I do not remember much of my parents." Kanji's hand stopped with a cracker to his mouth, dropping his hand. "I was so young and it is so long ago now. The couple whose photo I have at home appear similar to me, obviously, and I can see myself in their features, but I cannot clearly identify them as having raised me -that was my Grandfather. Still. I…" Her voice stocked and she stopped, taking a long drink from her can.

Kanji dropped the cracker in its box, pocketed it and inched sideways. After a few steps the side of his chest brushed against her shoulder and he lifted an arm to lay on her back.

She was trying not to cry. He knew, because of the small, rhythmic shudders he could feel through the thick cloth of her school jacket. But since a Shirogane does not cry and she would never admit to it, so he would not acknowledge it.

He saw her raise a hand to angrily scrub at her cheeks before she lifted her face to stare up into the early night sky. The wet trails scrunched up something inside his chest and he aimlessly ran his hand up and down her back.

When she spoke, there was no hint of tremble in her voice any longer. "I have lost them, fully and truly. But still I yearn for a connection." She watched the stars above and huffed a breath. "Which is futile, perhaps even trivial and pointless. I am my own person. My worth is not held in measure against my parents any longer."

"If yer the one wantin' it, Naoto," Kanji said softly, choking on his own words, "then it ain't silly at all."

She stiffened at his words, and Kanji closed his eyes, not wanting to see what might be shown in her face. He felt her shift and her tiny body leaning closer towards him was possibly the most she could allow herself in her need for comfort. Her shoulders slumped slightly and she rested against him.

He was still slowly running his hand up and down her shoulder as Naoto started to stand tall again.

"Yes. Well." She took a deep breath. "There are very few things a parent imparts upon their child after as much deliberation as their given name." He frowned, trying to keep up with her. She loved to hide any weakness -perceived or other- behind using words taller than Tokyo Tower. "Since neither of my parents seemed to have a direct family member with the same name, and since my spelling is so unique, I am trying to find the reason behind what they did. It is… one of their final gifts to me, after all."

"Mkay. So what do we have so far," Kanji asked, keeping his eyes on Inaba below them.

"Well, there is _Nao_ , of course. Honesty. Seeing the family tradition and their own passion for this line of work, wishing to imbue their first born with a certain extent of honesty, being honest or standing for the truth – all of this matters."

"It's a safe bet, yeah." Reluctantly he let go of her shoulder, feeling he should no longer intrude on her personal space. "An' the other?"

She pressed her lips together and tilted her head back, looking up at the night sky. Slowly the stars started to claim the velvety blue for themselves. "The other puzzles me. There is a unit or liquid measured with tō, spelled as," she swished her fingers through the air to draw a 斗, "though it is somewhat outdated. It is of course used as a general means of the word _measure_. But with how very ambiguous the two words would relate to one another, would they have wished for me to be a Measure of Honesty? Of that I would Truthfully Measure what is placed before me? Maybe the Measure is placed against _me_ , a reminder that all I do needs to hold up against honesty in life?" She lifted her left arm, her right hand catching its elbow and she rested the fingers of her left against her lips.

Kanji simply watched her for a while. He loved when she got that expression; it seemed so peaceful while at the same time he could see the power of her thoughts when her eyes moved over unseen pages of information or simply pulled forth memories she reflected.

After a while he, too, lifted his head and gazed skyward. There was no moon –had it been out during the day?- but it seemed more and more stars tried to fight against the pool of light from the city. "If you were to name your child, Naoto. What would you wish to say with it? The name, I mean."

She turned her head and mumbled from behind her fingers, "How do you mean?"

"Well," he scratched his neck briefly, "your parents are kinda like you, right? I mean, I'm a bit like the old bat, an' yer dad possibly was a bit like your gramps, so you'd be, you know, like them?"

"It is a valid hypothesis…"

"Yes, that. So what would you want with a name? Ya said it's a gift. So why'd ya think it would be a … a corset?"

Naoto dropped her hand, crossing her arms in doing so. "Please explain."

"Well…" Kanji turned, leaning his lower back against the fence, crossing his arms as well. "When you say ya name is to mean that yer in charge of bein' honest and that yer gonna be called on it… Man, I don't know. Sounds kinda cold to me."

There was a moment of silence and he felt the fence shift as she leaned forward, resting her arms on the fence. "That was not… That's not how I thought of it. My family, or at least my Grandfather, hold great value in honestly. That my deeds should measure up to these would be…" She trailed off. "Well. It should be a given. It is expected that I follow the family tradition in word and deed."

"Maybe. But if yer gonna name ya kid, don't you wanna… You know. Name it something nice?"

"If my parents considered me a future measure of truth and upstanding, I would not feel confined, Kanji-kun. I would feel honoured that they held me in such high regards just after my birth."

"But maybe they did even more than that, Naoto."

He felt her shift. "How so?"

Kanji pushed himself away from the fence and walked back to the table, picked up the astrology folder and walked back to her. He handed her the folder, showing the goddess. "Your name could also be a prayer." She said nothing, simply staring at the image for a few quiet seconds. " Think about it. Whether they meant for you to be under the protection of the goddess or the stars, or if they wanted ta make ya as strong as her- they did bring the Big Dipper into yer name. They could have simply spelled you differently, if all that mattered was your name, but they didn't. They put the name of a goddess in there, Naoto. They brought out the big guns!" He grinned at her, giving her a flex of his arm.

His smile froze and melted away when he saw tears shining in her eyes. "I… never considered it as such. Being their first born, it would have been ideal for me to step forward and uphold the family line and family tradition. Giving me additional protection if that were to be my lot in life is… it is thoughtful."

"Bullshit, Naoto. That ain't jus' _thoughtful_. It's _needed_. They wanted yer safe, so they gave yer safety. An' at the same time, they made sure yer reminding everyone who wants ta doubt yer 'Hey, shut up, she's honesty in- … in- … incurred!"

"…incarnate…" she mumbled, too quiet for him to hear.

"Ya know? No one can doubt ya if yer pretty much honesty and truth as a person already! An' if they wanna measure the truth, hell, they got the right person for it!"

Naoto chuckled and closed the folder. "So you assume all of the reasons I found hold an even truth? The meaning of the kanji as well as the divine in the name itself?"

"Well, yer pretty damn smart. I bet your parents were, too. They possibly spend half a year getting yer name just right."

Naoto held the closed folder against her chest and opened one arm to him. "Thank you."

Kanji smiled and embraced her gently. "Also, yer think too damn much about stuff."

Muffled against his chest he heard "I know…"

He let her go reluctantly, both turning to the night sky to watch the stars.

"Ah. Kanji-kun, look. The Big Dipper is rising."

He smiled, gazing up. "Yeah. It's gonna shine real bright soon."

She chuckled as she boxed his side. "Moronji."


End file.
